The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-07-01
TALdAGE'S SERMON.
How tl&s Cities of the Land Shall
be R.egenerated.
The Alliance of Dirt aul InIq uity-Crime
the Offspring of Ignorance-Cleanli-
ness and Compulsory EducR-
tiOn the Only Remedies.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, in recent
sermon at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, took
the prevalence of Dirt and Crime in the
cities as his subject, his text being:
And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Be
hold. pray thee the situation OF this city Is
pleasant my Lord seeth but the water is
naught, and the ground barren. And he said,
Bring me new cruise, and put salt therein.
And they brought it to him. And he went
forth unto the spring OF the waters and cast
the salt in there, and said Thus saith the Lord,
I have healed these waters; there shall not be
from thence any more death or barren land. So
the waters were healed unto this day,-[u.
Kings il. 1922
d. Talmage said:
Tt is difficult to estimate how much of
the pros perity and health of city are de-
pendent upon good water The time
| when, through well-laid pipes and from
! safe reservoir, an abundance Of water
from Croton, or Ridgewood, or Schuyl-
| kill, is brought into the city, is appropri-
ately celebrated with grafton and
pyrotechnic display. Thank God every
day for clear bright, beautiful sparkling
water, as it drops in the shower, or tos ses
up in the fountain, or rushes out at the
| hydrant.
The City of Jericho, Notwithstanding
all the physical and commercial advan-
tages, was lacking in this important eIe-
! ment. There was enough water, but it
was diseased, and the people were crying
out by reason thereof. Elisha, the
prophet, comes to the rescue. He says:
t'Get me new cruise; fill it with salt
and bring it to me-"
So the cruise of salt was brought to the
prophet, and l see him walking out to the
general reservoir, and he takes that salt
| and throws it into the reservoir, and lol
| all the impurities depart, through q SUI
pernatural and divine influence, and the
waters are good and fresh and clear, and
| all the people clap their hands and lift up
| their faces IN the gladness. Water for
| Jerich0-cJ Jar, bright, beautiful, God
given water!
At different times I have pointed out to
| you the fountains of municipal corrup-
| ton, and this morning | propose to show
! you what are the means of the rectifica-
| tion of those fountains. There are four
or five kinds of salt that have cleansing
| tendency. So far as God may help me,
| shall bring a cruise of salt to the work,
and empty it into the great reservoir of
municipal crime, sin and shame, lgnor-
| ance and abomination.
| In This work of cleansing our cities
| have first to remark that there is a work
/ for the broom and the shovel that nothing
else can do. There always has been an
1 intimate connection between iniquity and
! dirt. The filthy parts of the great cities
are always the most iniquitous parts.
| The cutters and the payements of the
/ Fourth warJ, New York, illustrate and
/ symbolic ;ae chura ter Of the people in
| the Fourth ward.
The ii St thing that IA bad man does
! when le is converted IS thoroughly to
wash himself. There We're, this morning,
on the way to the different churches,
thousands of men in proper apparel who,
| before their conversion, were unfit in
their Sabbath dress. When on the Sab
! bath l see man uncleanIy in his dress,
my suspicious in regard to his moral
character are aroused, and they are al
| ways well founded. So as to allow no eX-
cuse for lack of abIution, God has cleft
the continents with rivers and
| lakes, and has sunk five
great oceans, and all the world
| ought to be clean. Away, then, with the
dirt from our cities, not only because the
/ physical health needs an ablution but be-
| cause all the great moral and religious
interests of the cities demand it as posi-
tive necessity A filthy city always has
/ been and always will be wicked city.
Through the upturning OF the earth for
great improvement our city could not be
expected to be as clean as usual, but for
the ilimitabe dirt of Brooklyn for the
last SIX months there is no excuse 1t is
not merely a matter of dust in the eyes,
and mud for the shoes, .and of stencil for
the nostrils, but Of morals for the soul
| Another corrective influence that we
would bring to bear upon the evils OF our
( great cities is a Christian printing g-press.
The newspapers OF any place are the
/ test of morality or immortality. The
| newsboy who runs along the street with
roll of papers under MS arm is a
tremendous force that can not be
| turned aside nor resisted, and at his
every step the city is elevated or degrad-
ed. This hungry, alldevouring Ameri-
can mind must have something to read,
| and upon editors and authors and book
| publis hers and parents and teachers rest
the responsibility Of what they shall read.
Almost every man you meet has book
| in his hand or newspaper in his pocket.
/ What book Is it you have in your hands
/ What ne newspaper is it you have in your
| pOclzet7 Minister may preach, reformers
may plan, philanthropists may toll for
| the elevation of the suffering and the
criminal, but uatil all the newspapers Of
the land and all the booksellers Of the
| land set themselves against an iniquit-
! ous Iterature-untiI then we shall be
lighting against fearful odds.
Every time the cylinders OF our great
| publishing houses turn they make the
earth quake. From them goes forth a
| thought like an angel of light to feed and
bless the world, or like an angel Of dark
ness to smite it with corruption and sin
/ and shame and death. May God by his
omnipotent spirit purify and elevate the
American printing press
go on further and say that we must
depend upon the school for a great deal
/ of correcting influences. A community
can no more afford to have ignorant men
/ in its midst than it can afford to have un-
Gagged hyeuas. Ignorance is the moth er
Of hydra-headsd crime. Thirty-one per
/ cent. of all the criminals OF New Y ork
State can neither read nor write. Intel
lectual darkness is generally the pre-
/ cursor Of moral darkness.
/ know there are educated outlaws
men who, through their sharpness OF in
| tellect, are made more dangerous. They
! use their fine penmanshipin signing other
peoples names. ard their. science in In
! genlous burglaiies, and their fine man
ners in adroit hbcrtinlsm. They 60 their
round Of sin with well-cut apparel, and
dangling lewelry. and watches Of
/ eighteen carats, and kid gloves. They
/ are refined, educated, magnificent viii
/ lains. But that is the exception 1t is
/ generally the case that the Grim
/ inal classes are as ignorant as
/ they are wicked. For the proof Of
I what ] say, go into the prisons and peni-
teatiaries, and look upon the men and
/ women incarcerated. Inc dishonesty in
the eye, the low passion in the lip. are not
more conspicuous than the ignorance IN
the forehead. The ignorant classes are
/ always the dangerous classes. Dsma-
/ gogues mGrshai them. They are harm
less, ana are driven before the gale.
It is high time that ali city and State
authority, as well as the Federal Govern
ment, appreciate the awful statistics
that, while years ago. iu this country,
there was set apart 4S 00J. 600 acres OF
land for school purposes, there are now
in New Eagiand 1911 C01 people who can
neither read nor Writes and Ia the State
Of Pennsylvania ~, 00J VINO can neither
read nor write, and ia the State Of New
York 24i, eco who can neither read nor
write. while IN the United States there
are near G 010,G03 VINO can neither read
nor write. Statistics enough 70 sfagger